Joystiq is reporting that Sega's shooter Binary Domain only sold 20,000 copies in March.

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Following its launch on February 28, it seems Binary Domain didn't have a very good March. According to data Joystiq received from the NPD, Sega's sci-fi shooter only sold 20,000 copies during the month. Compare that to the 1.3 million physical copies sold of the other big sci-fi game of March, Mass Effect 3.

Of course, Binary Domain had a lot going against it. For one, it's called Binary Domain. There was little-to-no marketing, whereas Mass Effect 3 ads were everywhere and everything you bought came with DLC. In the sci-fi wars of March, 2012, Mass Effect 3 emerged victorious.

As the last big boxed product from Sega, this disappointing performance likely contributed to Sega's decision to drastically alter its publishing strategy and issue substantial layoffs worldwide at the end of March.

When the first trailers for this made the rounds, it looked unbelievibly bad; dumb, tired rip off of the Terminator mythos with embarassing stereotyped characters, laughable dialog and sub-par visuals.

The game only recieved a luke-warm reception from press and public, (and that's being generous), so somebody on the dev team hit the asskick button; the demo they released a month ago showed vast improvements.

But really, how was this wack Japanese cover shooter with a french-accented robot squadmate supposed to compete with Mass Effect 3?

I was saying the same thing about Syndicate not too long ago. People are not going to pay top dollar for second tier games.

Exactly, Syndicate should have been a $20 game on Steam and I would have bought it day one. As of now I'd rather give my money to the indie titles like Legend of Grimlock, Terraria, Dungeon Defenders, etc.

Some games, like Earth Defense Force get this. This failed for multiple reasons. It's a perfect example of Japanese developers not knowing who the fuck their target audience is. Choose East or West. A bastardized middle ground is going to alienate both target groups.

After playing the demo, I thought it was pretty-ok, if not generic like many have observed above. One thing I can say I liked about it was situations where the game gave you some interesting options. There is some giant robot in the demo you fight and you have several ways to disable it, but they are all on some hidden timer.

For example, a squad mate says "Hey shoot those power lines and drop em on his head and such" but if your slow ass thinks the game will stop at that point for you, you're wrong. If you don't get to those power lines in time, then you lose that option. Other ones will open up to take down the robot, but if you're too slow on the draw then you loose out on those too and just have to blow the thing up with copious amounts of ammo and survival tactics.

I don't know if that is represented throughout the game or just in that one section of the demo, but I thought it was kind of a cool thing. Most games seem to "stop" in time and let you achieve the objective (eg- shooting power lines, grabbing a rocket launcher), even when there is some purported sense of urgency. In this case I liked how the sense of urgency was real.

Also, I'm pretty much always down for a "when does an AI become self-aware and alive" kind of story. I guess I'll grab this bad boy at the bargain bin. I'm still too busy replaying the ME series right now....

But really, how was this wack Japanese cover shooter with a french-accented robot squadmate supposed to compete with Mass Effect 3?

Better marketing.

The Debut Trailer should have never been released to the public, as like you said, it just looked like a terrible, cliched game that mixed Terminator and Gears of War.

Sega tried to fix this by releasing several StoryTrailers (my favorite being this one) but then followed them up with really crappy gameplay videos and cutscenes which made the game look very cheap, not satisfying, and with a story that was classically Japanese dramatic.

The game is so far my sleeper hit. Like the Yakuza series, the writing is and acting is top shelf, with the occasional valley of drama and peek of humorous insanity keeping things fresh and interesting. The interaction between the player and his crew is genuinely enjoyable. I replayed many chapters in the game with different squad configurations just to hear the differences in the dialogue between myself and the two squad-mates.

The combat, though not as tight as I would have preferred, was rather satisfying with pieces of robots flying off as I chipped away at them with my machine gun bullets.